We all wear film badges and none of mine ever showed a thing. The facilities are over-the-top construction-wise, TAMU is underground, the "business end" and the cyclotron both sit in "caves" built from what looks like 6'x6'x6' solid concrete blocks with safety interlocks out the wazoo. Operators are situated far away. All tested materials and fixturing is surveyed for activation (radioactivity) before it is allowed to leave. The facilities all have radiation safety officers and no tolerance for foolery.

Air travel is worse for exposure.

The main effect is sensory deprivation and boredom. Any radiation effects on the casual user, I have yet to notice 35 years into the game and maybe a couple dozen heavy ion test campaigns, many dozens of TID drops, and LINAC and flash X-ray tests every so often.

Of these sources, only TID (Co60) has any permanently radioactive material stored. The rest of the facilities' whole point is to create radiation effects without keeping nasty stuff around.

I think what people really want to know is if they are going to be affected by proximity to all of these radioactive testing locations. To be honest, I wonder how badly the guys who operate such testing facilities are affected too. Having to deal with all of this stuff in and out has probably got a big effect on them after a while so I really hope that they are getting paid to work around the substances!

NSRL (Brookhaven) is one of the oldest SEE beam lines and has been upgraded since we first used them back in the late '80s. Maybe the highest penetration of the lot? If you need to punch into a micromodule that can't stand deconstruction, this place may be your only bet.

I'd think your folks would not want anything to do with LBNL Cyclotron, the EMI there is hellacious (and that was in the context of POL DC-DCs - how would your RFICs like tens of mV of 50kHz Irep rate impulses (from the roughing pumps on the vacuum chamber, as I made it out) for noise?). Good facility for some types of stuff and quick species changes, but man, the hash....